Security to her doesn't necessarily mean comforting an audience with the familiar, the safe. It's more an issue of unlocking the spirit of a composition and showcasing it, at all times, to all ears.

Step No. 1 in her plan: Find the "general pulse" of a piece. "That doesn't mean the rhythm; it means the feeling of the rhythm," claims Fialkowska, who will perform Saturday night in Moravian College's Foy Concert Hall, Bethlehem, as part of the Pulaski Festival. "It doesn't mean the exact rhythm, like a metronome - 1-2-3-4-5. You have to discover the structure of the piece - its high and low points."

Step No. 2: Make sure every note is heard. "Don't scuffle over anything," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Weston, Conn., "especially in Mozart, Chopin" and other composers known for stocking material with lengthy, flashy, demanding passages. In this context, a "run" signifies rushing and therefore shouldn't exist;there is only room for fast lines played quickly and distinctly.

Step No. 3: Aim for a "beautiful sound," one which projects to the rear of a hall even during the softest moments. Even when the soft pedal is pressed, Fialkowska explains, notes should "sing out" to all listeners.

It was Arthur Rubinstein who tipped the Montreal-born musician on how to familiarize audiences. The master pianist first heard her in Israel at the 1974 edition of the competition named in his honor, an event Fialkowska, who was so frustrated by slow career growth that she had just enrolled in law school, entered half-heartedly.

Impressed by her power, beauty of tone, understanding and her "emotion and complete technical command," Rubinstein became her informal mentor. She played for him at homes and hotels and he gave her significant introductions, traveled to her concerts all over the world, and offered musical shortcuts.

One shortcut involved Chopin. Rubinstein was acknowledged as a supremely sensitive interpreter of the work of his fellow Pole. Reared by a Polish father and a mother who taught her piano, Fialkowska was very aware of Chopin but not exactly intimate with his spirit. Sandwiched between sessions on Mozart and Beethoven sonatas, French piano music and Brahms' Concerto in B Flat Major, Rubinstein taught her Chopin's secrets.

Today, only one non-Slav, the 44-year-old Italian Maurizio Pollini, has completely satisfied Fialkowska with a version of Chopin. "A lot of pianists play Chopin really beautifully, but they miss out on Chopin's rhythms, the feeling of dance," noted Fialkowska, 36.

Rubinstein was especially helpful in instructing her on how to play softly yet resonantly (his "big secret," according to Fialkowska) and construct "an invisible cord" from performer to "the heart of the audience. 'Youcan't just sit there and play beautifully,' " Fialkowska paraphrased in the November/December 1983 issue of Keyboard Classics. " 'Picasso painted with his stomach; you have to feel the rhythm in your stomach, this terrible tension inside.' "

The tension, Rubinstein would continue, should not be visible. Onstage, Fialkowska keeps her body still: "You lose power when you move around," she insisted.

The fact that she has performed Chopin's two piano concertos approximately 80 times also has contributed to her intimacy with his music. One of her two RCA albums is devoted only to his pieces. For years she has been playing all- Chopin recitals.

Fialkowska also is a Liszt specialist. This year she has been marking the centennial of the Hungarian's death with only-Liszt programs, including one last month which kicked off the BBC's yearlong celebration. Although she has played a lot of Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Poulenc, her affinity for Liszt and Chopin has earned her the label of a romantic player.

Until last April. A version of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra convinced a number of listeners that she is an able classicist, too. Result: She will play six Mozart concertos in the next seven months. "It's better to be more general," admitted the pianist, who Saturday will still offer compositions by Liszt and Chopin.

Fialkowska, who is also a chamber musician, has been connected to Poland in other ways. As a youngster in Canada, she played at a number of Polish "do's." She studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki at the Juilliard School of Music, where she used to teach. In 1978 she and the Montreal Symphony debuted Szymanowski's "Symphonie Concertante," a union prescribed by Rubinstein, for whom the composition was written. Twoyears ago, she appeared in a San Francisco hospital benefit for Solidarity.